Helen Bach: Bright spots on Black Friday

Helen Bach

There have already been numerous discussions about so-called “Black Friday”.

The name itself conjures up something sinister, doesn’t it?

The scenes shown on the news were shameful – when did we become a nation that would trample each other for a cheap telly?

But just to balance out all the negativity, I have two positive things that also happened on that day.

My husband by chance had that day booked off for our Christmas shopping, both of us unaware of the apparent carnage that would greet us should we step inside our local Tesco or Asda.

However, we visited both stores and can report there were no scenes of fist fights over TVs, tablets or similar.

In fact, in Tesco where we were trying out expensive headphones because they were on daughter’s suggested present list, a lady approached us. She had seen we were looking at a certain brand and gave us a £10 discount voucher that she’d been given for them.

My husband thanked her, but mentioned that we might not be buying them. She replied that it didn’t matter because she wouldn’t use it anyway. She then went on her merry way, as did we, but we left the voucher behind for somebody else to use as we didn’t need it either. A little act of kindness from her which brightened my day.

On the Friday afternoon we had a Thanksgiving Dinner at my daughter’s school.

Her current topic is America, so the teacher and the Year 6 class had bravely decided to cook a meal for their parents, from scratch.

This feast for 28 people included turkey with all the trimmings, followed by the best apple pie I’ve ever eaten.

We then all had to say for what we were thankful – mine was for living in such a wonderful community and for the fabulous school which is at its heart, while husband was thankful for the apple pie.